CU helps launch ‘American Gut’ study

Cool or gross? That’s up to you, but you are invited to join a study called “American Gut.”

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, along with scientists around the world, are trying to find out what is living in our guts.

The trillions of microbial partners in and on human bodies outnumber the body’s own cells by as many as 10 to 1. They do all sorts of jobs, from helping digest food to building up our immune systems.

The Human Food Project[1], a worldwide effort, allows participants to find out what microbes are in their own gut and what they are doing in there.

The project builds on previous efforts, including the five-year, $173-million Human Microbiome Project funded by the National Institutes of Health, said associate professor Rob Knight of CU-Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute. But unlike other projects, this one is seeking help from tens of thousands of people.